Understand Internships

Employers: Tips for Hiring Interns

Why Hire Oregon Tech Interns?

Many employers are eager to connect with Oregon Tech talent, because they know that our students "hit the ground running." Our hands-on, experiential learning environment prepares students to make contributions to your organization, even as interns.

What is an Internship?

An internship is one form of experiential education undertaken by students. Other common types undertaken by students in partnership with employers are part-time employment and industry-sponsored research and projects. You may be aware that the definition of what constitutes an internship has been the subject of much debate and legal scrutiny. The National Association of College and Employers (NACE), with the input of employers, has developed this standardized definition:

To ensure that an experience—whether it is a traditional internship or one conducted remotely or virtually—is educational, and thus eligible to be considered a legitimate internship by the NACE definition, all the following criteria must be met:

The experience must be an extension of the classroom: a learning experience that provides for applying the knowledge gained in the classroom. It must not be simply to advance the operations of the employer or be the work that a regular employee would routinely perform.

The skills or knowledge learned must be transferable to other employment settings.

The experience has a defined beginning and end, and a job description with desired qualifications.

There are clearly defined learning objectives/goals related to the professional goals of the student’s academic coursework.

There is supervision by a professional with expertise and educational and/or professional background in the field of the experience.

There is routine feedback by the experienced supervisor.

There are resources, equipment, and facilities provided by the host employer that support learning objectives/goals.

What are the Benefits of Internships to Employers?

Immediate Contributions to Your Operations

Oregon Tech students have a reputation for being immediate contributors, driven by their maturity and their experience in applying their knowledge under the supervision of industry-expert faculty.

Current Skill Set

Students are learning the most up-to-date skills in their field and bring that cutting-edge knowledge into your workplace.

Inexpensive, Temporary Labor

Interns provide valuable contributions at a significantly lower cost than regular FTE, and can be brought in to work on short-term projects that current employees do not have the bandwidth to complete.

A Sourcing Pipeline

After spending several months at your firm, employees who intern then sign on as full-time-employees understand your culture, are committed to your mission, are trained in your operations, and are much more likely to be retained after five years. NACE reports that nationwide, over half of college interns become full-time employees at the same firm, and students who intern prior to graduation are much more likely to be retained as employees five years out. In addition, top students are typically hired by their internship sites when they graduate. If you want to hire these students, you need to hire them as interns.

How Much Should I Pay Interns?

Creates ownership in the program by both the business/agency and the intern.

Produces a better pool of intern candidates. Most students take on debt to attend school and many work while in school. They are not able to participate in unpaid internships.

Enhances employer branding. Savvy students can see how much competitors pay interns by using sites like glassdoor.com.

Non-profit exception: Many nonprofit organizations are prohibited by policy from paying interns so may provide internships as long as they are structured learning experiences.

Interns are paid an hourly wage; they typically fall into the "non-exempt" category due to the nature of their positions. Many employers use the salary they pay a new college hire as the starting point for determining intern wages. Intern pay rates vary based on the student’s major and the functional area in which student is assigned, just as new college hire rates will. In addition to major and functional area, many employers use the student’s year in school in setting rates.

As a benchmark, the national average hourly wage for interns at the bachelor's degree-level is $17.20, with technical degrees typically higher than average. The highest salaries for bachelor’s degree-level interns were reported for computer science ($18.79) and engineering ($20.04) majors. Savvy students use sites like Glassdoor.com to compare intern wages across employers. Source: NACE

While academic credit legitimizes an unpaid internship, in order to be identified as an internship, the experience must fit the seven criteria listed above.

Timing

Summer is the most common time for internships, and when students tend to be most available. Oregon Tech works on a quarter schedule, so a summer internship would fall into the mid-June to mid-September timeframe. However, internships can take place at any time. At Oregon Tech’s Portland Metro campus, many students work while completing their degrees and are interested in applying their learning year-round.

When Should I Recruit?

Many students plan ahead, but others are not ready to commit until closer to summer. You may hire summer interns as early as the previous fall, and as late as a few weeks before the internship begins. Keep in mind the recruiting schedules of other firms who may be competing with you for interns. Internships, whether they are for summer or other times, may be posted to students at any time.

Who Should I Recruit?

Students will travel for internships, especially during the summer, so do not limit yourself only to local candidates. Oregon Tech offers a variety of programs across several campuses. For the best pool of applicants, post your positions to students across the university. View our full list of programs and program directors.

How Should I Recruit?

To ensure that your internship opportunity is seen by the most students, we recommend the following:

How Do I Ensure a Positive Experience?

There are many ways to promote a positive experience for both your organization and for the student. You may review best practices on the NACE website. You will find additional information from ERE.net (geared to corporate recruiters) and from InternBridge, which offers a number of internship white papers based on extensive primary research.

Necessary Elements

Preparing a preliminary list of potential projects that will help the student learn and help the company achieve important goals is a very good start. Interns need focused, purposeful roles to keep them motivated, learning, and helping to meet organizational objectives. Jobs that merely require the student to perform clerical or routine tasks should not be considered as internships. Concrete deliverables provide the student with an opportunity to add to their portfolio.

Supervision

There should be many opportunities for instant communication and feedback from an experienced professional. Other students should not supervise interns. The mentor/supervisor must serve as an information source and assure that interns are keeping pace and accomplishing goals. The supervisor/mentor should serve as a positive role model while putting a heavy emphasis on teaching and supporting the intern throughout the entire experience.

Adequate Space and Resources

A proper work environment and tools are critical success factors of a quality internship. This includes adequate work area (cubicle and desk, office and desk etc., or some other acceptable work area) and adequate resources to perform tasks and to learn including a computer, software, office supplies, and telephone.

Exposure to a Professional Environment

The intern should be working onsite in a professional environment with exposure to a variety of settings and experiences, such as team meetings.

Highly Desirable Elements

Opportunities for networking and career development: There should be opportunities to build personal relationships and networks during the course of the internship. There should be opportunity for direct contact and more personal interaction with supervisors, mentors, employees and other interns.

Exposure to the big picture: through company tours, job shadowing, field trips, and attendance at company training seminars.

Orientation

On the first day of the internship the intern should review the job description with the supervisor. The assumption should be that the student's duties will not change drastically during the course of the internship and if they do, it will be to the student's benefit (i.e., more responsibility for better learning experience). Having a set of well-defined responsibilities focuses the learning and gives the student a better chance of achieving critical learning objectives. The supervisor should make a list of projects to be worked on during the course of the semester, and have a clear idea of what the intern will work on when not working on specific projects.

Orientation programs can ensure that interns get off to a good start, and can address such topics as:

Internship Curriculum/Student Learning Objectives

There should be clear learning objectives for the student intern. This is shared responsibility—the internship provider/supervisor should help facilitate the setting of these objectives and the accomplishment of them during the semester. Each student intern should customize goals and put them in writing, in consultation with the supervisor, to meet their own specific needs and desired career path exploration, but should also consider generic internship goals that apply to all internships:

Applying classroom theory/knowledge to actual working situations

Gaining new knowledge by performing tasks, working on projects, and completing other on the job learning experiences related to a professional discipline

Gaining a greater degree of self-direction in the learning process

Testing a tentative career choice

Exit Interview

There should be an exit interview (initiated by the supervisor) with the intern at the conclusion of the experience. Possible topics:

Employer evaluation of intern: (performance evaluation)

Job offer, future job references (letters of reference or references on applications), staying in touch, and other possible mentoring opportunities either at the company or in the industry.

Intern evaluation of internship: What can we do to improve our internship program? Were the projects and tasks relevant to your major? Did you understand what was expected of you? Did you have enough access to your supervisor/mentor? What did you like most? Dislike most?

Keeping in Touch

At many organizations, once an offer is made and accepted—usually in late fall for summer interns—new hires are paired with a buddy or mentor, or other staff member. Employers say it’s important to maintain contact via phone and e-mail, asking former interns to participate at career fair booths and at information sessions, and to serve as campus ambassadors for the organization.